What film did you watch last night?

Joker.

Heath Ledger set the benchmark for Joker movies in 2008, and in the 11 years which have passed, nobody's come within a long country mile of his performance.

Until now.

I am not a fan of the DC universe, and I tend to find DC movies pretty laughable. But this dark origin story for the Joker is easily one of the best films I've seen in years.

Joaquin Phoenix is utterly convincing. If he doesn't get some kind of award out of this, I'll be frankly astounded. His performance is absolutely consistent from the first frame to the last. We are shown the real Joker as he was originally intended to be, before Hollywood's lazy depictions warped him into a cheap imitation of the comic book villain.

Most important of all, we finally learn the Joker's true origins:

* Batman's dad is a complete ********, just like Batman will grow up to be
* he had an affair with the cleaning lady, which resulted in the birth of the Joker
* this means the Joker is Batman's older half brother, which explains the animosity between them
* the cleaning lady is fired, and forced to sign a confidentiality agreement
* she lives in poverty with the Joker, who knows nothing of his connection to Batman
* the Joker eventually finds out and is understandably aggrieved
* he visits Batman, but doesn't get a chance to explain their relationship
* the Joker becomes disillusioned with society
* he does some stand up comedy, and manages to get a spot on the Murray Macklemire show, where he takes his revenge against society
* Batman's parents are murdered by a bunch of clowns because **** rich people

I went into this movie with low expectations, and they were blown right out of the water. Supervillain films usually follow the 'bullets and explosions' formula, but this is nothing like that. It's a well crafted piece of cinematic genius that delivers the most authentic portrayal of the Joker ever produced for the big screen, and (at long last!) the canonical story of his twisted origins.

I rate Joker at 29.97 on the Haglee Scale, which works out as a stunning 9/10 on IMDB.
 
Evangelion said:
* Batman's dad is a complete ********, just like Batman will grow up to be
* he had an affair with the cleaning lady, which resulted in the birth of the Joker
* this means the Joker is Batman's older half brother, which explains the animosity between them
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Was this not just what Joker's mum said... not what we know to be true?
 
Cats (2019) - 5/10

Superb production values, great performances and mesmerizing dance routines, but the lack of story and weak editing spoil it.

There’s a great variety of songs and types of music but the way they join together results in a jumbled mishmash of genres and styles which is further exacerbated by the nonsensical lyrics.

The acting and celebrity performances are good, but they are a bit jarring at times and although it’s a very magical and impressive production, I was a bit bored by the end.
 
AndyCr15 said:
Was this not just what Joker's mum said... not what we know to be true?
Click to expand...

Jokester said:
He was adopted by his mum - it states this in the asylum scene which also reveals that she was delusional and she was also letting him be abused by her boyfriend
Click to expand...

The movie leaves it open to interpretation; you can accept that she's deluded and none of what she says is true, or you can accept that Wayne is lying and using his power to cover up the scandal by forcing her to sign fraudulent paperwork that appears to substantiate his claims.
 
Evangelion said:
The movie leaves it open to interpretation; you can accept that she's deluded and none of what she says is true, or you can accept that Wayne is lying and using his power to cover up the scandal by forcing her to sign fraudulent paperwork that appears to substantiate his claims.
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Yeah, but it would be a bit silly to believe his mom. We already saw how deluded he was showing himself as thinking he was dating that girl for example. There's one theory he didn't shoot the TV host (okay, it's more for comedy, but watch 'HISHE Joker' and they basically point out you can't really trust anything you're shown in that movie as the narative is set by a delusional psycho.
 
SixTwoSix said:
Thomas Wayne richest man in the city, wouldn't be hard for him to get records changed. Not saying I think that's what happened, just throwing it out there.
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Yes, but that's not what at any point is suggested! The delusion that is presented to the viewer is that Thomas Wayne is his dad, bearing in mind he confirmed (and Alfred!) she did work there and they didn't deny it - it even throws in a flashback scene to re-inforce that she was delusional and the assertion of child abuse was true. Having that delusion shattered was then what drove Joker to kill his mum.
 
The Irishman 8.5/10

Loved it. Very touching actually from Scorsese if I’m reading it right. End of an era, big legends fading to be forgotten, a point on today’s cinema, door left open for the next generation yaddayadda.
******* long, but I feel that’s part of the point.

Some great people in it that I didn’t know were until they turned up and surprised me.
 
Cats 6/10

Yeah.... Wtf... Ok I know this is a musical but the lack of actual material to join each song together is frustrating. By about 75% I was getting pretty bloody bored, which was unexpected. If you're a fan of the musical then I suspect this is a triumph, the dancing and singing is superb and the VFX world class, and sometimes just weirder that expected. But....
To a layman.... No this is just weird AF.
It's weird and I took a lot of LSD as a teenager....so yes.
 
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker - caveat, I am a huge Star Wars fan, have been for 40 years. This film, whilst basically a retread of Jedi has enough going for it to make me forgive the bits that didn't work. It made me very happy and that was all I wanted from it! 4/5
 
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